Tail # 8: Teddy, the clairvoyant dog

  When I was 8 my parents had a dog that belonged to my Grandmother, his name was Teddy.  He was a black poodle. I can remember see photos of the dog back into the sixties and he last into the 80's. So we have come up with that he must have been 23 years old before he died.  The truth is we don't know how old the dog really was. He seemed like he had been in the family forever.
  My dad used to go to my grandmothers unannounced after driving 90 minutes to get there. He would show up in the middle of the day and knock on the door. He would sit and she would hand him a fresh cup of coffee. One day, he asked her about the coffee.
  "Mom, you haven't started drinking coffee have you?"
  "No, I can't stand the stuff,” she offered, taking a seat across from him.
  "Then why do you always have a fresh pot on?” he asked, taking a sip of the scolding hot coffee.
  "I don't always have a fresh pot on, just when you are coming to visit,” she answered.
  "Hmm, but I didn't tell you that I was coming,” he asked.
  "I know, Teddy did,” she answered with a smile.
  Now my dad looked down at the dog and back up to my grandmother. "Explain?"
  "He scratches at the door when ever you or one of you sisters are about to show up and he is hardly ever wrong," she answered with a smile.
  The dog was hardly ever wrong and the fresh pots of coffee came until one day my dad slipped into the Grand ma's and there was no coffee.
  He looked down at the old dog and then back up to my Grandma. "So he didn't know I was coming today."
  "No, he knew. I just found out I was out of coffee," she answered, showing him the container in the bottom of the garbage, the note with a shopping list written out on it, and then she raise her purse showing she was ready to go.
  "Where you going?" dad asked.
  "I am ready to for you to take me to the store," she laughed.
  My dad for years thought that someone else was supposed to take his mother to the store, but no one has ever steeped forward.  When she died my family inherited that toothless dog. He was old but he started a new life in at my house and we enjoyed his company for many years.